Hugh Williams was the only survivor of a vessel that sank in the Straits of Dover on 5 December 1660. One hundred and twenty-one years later to the day, another shipping disaster
in the same waters claimed the lives of all on board, except
a man with the seemingly charmed name of Hugh Williams.
On 5 August 1820, when a picnic boat capsized on the Thames,
all drowned with the exception of a five-year-old boy—Hugh Williams. Again about one hundred and twenty years later,
on 10 July 1940, a British trawler was destroyed by a German mine. Only two men survived, an uncle and nephew, both named Hugh Williams.
Plimmer, M. & King, B., Beyond Coincidence: Amazing Stories of Conincidence and the Mystery Behind Them (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 192.